So this dates the view to around 1813 when the huge excavation to create what we now call the chalk cutting had just been completed. The artist, Thomas Fisher, would have been looking towards Dunstable from the fields near Hockliffe.
The idea in 1813 was to make the stagecoach route just a little bit easier (and speedier) for the horses.
Previously, the road to Dunstable went on a circuitous route around the hill, arriving at what is now Brewers Hill Road. Fascinatingly, the painting shows the old road to the right of the new cutting. The original trackway can still be glimpsed today from the edge of the lane heading towards Sewell.
That, in itself, had once been an innovation. It was laid out in 1782 to replace the old Roman road which had climbed straight over the summit.
The stagecoach trade, which had made Dunstable very prosperous, came to a sudden end with the arrival of the railways,
Dunstable made a desperate effort in 1837 to delay the inevitable by spending £10,000 to make the chalk cutting even deeper. But travellers preferred the comfort and speed of the trains.
Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.